ODE to Sachin- a compilation.

Andrew Flintoff:
When you bowl at him you are not just trying to get him out, you are trying to impress him. "I want him to walk off thinking 'that Flintoff, he's all right isn't he? I feel privileged to have played against him.

Shane Warne:
"Sachin Tendulkar is, in my time, the best player without doubt - daylight second, Brian Lara third."

Viv Richards:
He is 99.5% Perfect.. I'll pay to watch him play. I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level.

Sir Don Bradman:
I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel! in reference to Sachin Tendulkar.

Barry Richards:
Consensus is that Sir Donald Bradman was the best batsman ever to play Cricket. Sir Don did not play One-Day Cricket but if he did, he could easily be Sachin Tendulkar.

Allan Donald:
"In my several years of international cricket, Tendulkar remains the best batsman I have ever bowled to. It's been a pleasure to bowl at the master batsman even though one hasn't always emerged with credit from the engagements."

"During our team meetings, we often speak about the importance of the first 12 balls to Tendulkar. If you get him then you can thank your stars, otherwise it could mean that tough times lie ahead."

Harsha Bhogle:
In the recently concluded IPL when Sachin drove Ishant Sharma to a straight drive, he said- "Open the text book..turn to page no. 32"

Andrew Symonds: wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin. " To Sachin, the man we all want to be "

A.R.Rhaman
Well, I’m no Sachin Tendulkar you know, whenever he takes the field, people expect him to score a century before he loses his wicket. I can only give in my best and I always strive to live up to fans expectations, but it’s not possible to get an Oscar every time.

Virender Sehwag:
Both of us have come a long away and it is a great honour that Tendulkar thinks I come close to resembling him as a batsman. It is a great honour, like a dream come true. If I die tomorrow I'll be the happiest man because I played this game because of Tendulkar, and Tendulkar himself saying that I resemble him - there is no bigger compliment than that.

Mathew Hayden:
I have seen GOD , he bats at no.4 for india in Tests.

Ravi Shashtri:
He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back.

Mark Taylor:
We did not lose to a team called india...we lost to a man called Sachin.

Brain Lara:
Sachin is a genius , i am a mere mortal!

Barry Richards:
Sachin is cricket's GOD

Martin Crowe:
The shot played on this ball is only possible for the GOD of cricket.

Paul Strang:
What we [zimbabwe] need is 10 tendulkars.

Steve Waugh:
There is no shame losing to such a great player(sachin).

Shane Warne:
I would go to bed having nightmares of sachin dancing down the ground and hitting me for sixes.

Mathew Hayden:
His life seems to be a stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a God...

Dennis Lillie:
If I had to bowl to Sachin I would bowl with a halmet on. He hits the ball so hard.

Steve Waugh:
After being defeated in the Coca-Cola Cup finals in Sharjah) "It was one of the greatest innings I have ever seen. There is no shame being beaten by such a great player, Sachin is perhaps only next to the Don''

Michael Kasprowicz:
Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours."

Shane Warne:
I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player."

Wasim Akram:
Today, he showed the world why he is considered the best batsman around. Some of the shots he played were simply amazing. Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin's dismissal meant they could win the game. Today, I feel that the Indian players, too, feel this way. (Wasim Akram, after game at Hobart, CUB series, 1999)

Brett Lee:
You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind midwicket. His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick. Brett Lee, on Sachin Tendulkar's batting, 1999

BBC Sports:
Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.

Wasim Akram:
"I dont know what to bowl at him. i bowled an inswinger n he drove me through covers of d front foot. then i bld an outswinger n he again punched thr covers of d backfoot(for tamil fans-dai avan eppadi pottalum adikaranda). he is d toughest batsmen i 've bowled to.
''He shold live long n score lots of runs, but not against pakistan(smiling) "- on 24th april 2004 on espn Sachin's 30th B day program.

Sunil Gavaskar:
''India's fortune will depend on how many runs the little champion scores. There is no doubt Tendulkar is the real thing.

Richie Benaud:
He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling.

Geoffrey Boycott:
Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow nothing is a problem.

Eddie Barlow:
He is Sachin Tendulkar. I hope he stays Sachin Tendulkar. We need a new player, a player in his own way. He has a technique which is the hallmark of a great player. Everything indicates that he will be a great player and I am sure he will prove me right. Reminds me of Barry Richards.

Greg Chappell:
He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket. He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease.

Abdul Qadir:
I Was fielding in the covers Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut Test at Karachi. I still remember Waqar Younis was at his peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Test cricket but was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him 'this kid looks very good' and Imran agree with me.

Sir Garfield Sobers:
I have watched a lot of Tendulkar and we have spoken to each other a lot. He has it in him to be among the very best.

Peter Roebuck:
Sometime back I had written a piece that said that Sachin's the master and Lara a genius with his head high up somewhere. That's it!

Jeff Thompson:
Sachin is an attacker. He has much more power than Sunny. He wants to be the one to set the pace. He has to be on top. That's the buzz about him.

Ian Healy:
Tendulkar is the most comouncy pitch with Hughes, McDermott and Whitney gunning for him he only had 60-odd when No 11 came in. I've seen him against Warne too.

Mike Coward:
Sachin's the best. I've had this view since I saw him score that hundred in Sydney in 1992. He's the most composed batsman I've ever seen.

Hashim Amla:
Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it. Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.

Shahrukh Khan:
"Maybe the country doesn't pray for me like they do for Sachin Tendulkar, but I know I'm on a good wicket as well. "

Martina Navratilova:
"Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson." Tennis legend joins the Sachin Tendulkar fan club after watching him bat at Sydney.

Alistair Campbell:
After loosing to India in the Coca Cola Cup final at Sharjah in November '98
"He has everything a top batsman needs. Tendulkar is a classic example of a player being so good that his age is an irrelevance"

David Boon:
"Technically he stands out as the best because of his ability to increase the pace at will"

Cricket Historian Vasant Raiji:
"I have always felt C. K. Nayadu was the best. I now think sachin has the honour of being the most outstanding batsman of all time."

Steve Waugh:
"You take Don Bradman away and he is next up I reckon."

Adam Hollioke:
"In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say 'Can you bowl me another one?'"

Tony Greig:
He is cool, has magnificent temperament, and is so mature you tend to forget his age. I can't think of any other example of a player who has so dominated the world before the age of 25.

Allan Border: (after India won the Coca-Cola cup )
"Hell, if he stayed, even at 11 an over he would have got it."

Ajay Jadeja:
"I can't dream of an innings like that. He exists where we can't."

David Gower:
"In the last session in Nagpur, when the Indian chase was still on, Tendulkar hit a reverse sweep, an orthodox sweep and a lofted cover drive to (Ian) Blackwell. They were all exquisite cricket shots. To play those shots deliberately in such quick succession, off almost similar deliveries, was genius. That was a little jewel, just those 3-4 minutes.
"It reminds you how very few people are special. It was a case of great thinking and good technique."

Peter Roebuck: ‎"On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!"